15. SWITCHING FROM THOUGHT TO CONSCIOUSNESS
What is the secret of Consciousness? To remain conscious and not to let the mind take over. Somehow, there seems to be a constant wrestling bout between the mind and Consciousness. Just like in an arm-wrestling match, where one tries to put the other's arm down, the mind is constantly pushing the Consciousness down and out of our life. It is our challenge to push the mind down and remain conscious, instead of the other way round.
Unfortunately, it is very difficult to remain conscious all the time. So long as we are awake, the eyes see and trigger a thought. The ears hear something and make the mind wander. The nose may smell our favourite food and we immediately become the body. The tongue will taste and make us desire. The skin is constantly touching and feeling and agitates the mind which is already jumping like a monkey all the time. How does one stop the mind? The wise men of the past thus advocated that we switch off the senses and still the mind, if we want to move from a state of thought to a state of Consciousness. If we don't, we will be constantly bombarded with thoughts. One who wants to remain conscious of the Truth, learns to switch from thought to Consciousness. Every time one is pulled away by thought, one stops and switches back into the Consciousness of the reality. If only we learn to switch off thoughts and to be conscious, and do it every time our thoughts take charge, we will grow in our Consciousness.